Dates

Proposed: January 21-23, 2012 (Sat-Mon)

Olin residence halls open Sunday January 22 at 5pm, and classes begin on Tuesday January 24, so a Saturday-Sunday-Monday FUDCon would give us full use of facilities, overlap with the energy of the local student community, and be reasonable for the schedules of people traveling from out of town.

One format to consider might be doing a slight shuffle of the past FUDCon order.

Location

About Needham

About Boston

Reference Links

Major Local Airports

The following airlines have flights going in / coming out of Logan. For a more complete list of regional airlines, please see Wikipedia. Note that international arrivals generally happen at Terminal E, whereas international departures may also occur from other Terminals (for example, a flight from Boston to London marketed by Air France might depart from Terminal A instead of Terminal E, if it is operated by Delta Air Lines).

Terminal A:

Alaska Airlines

Continental Airlines

Delta Air Lines

Terminal B

Air Canada

American Airlines

Frontier Airlines

Spirit Airlines

US Airways

Virgin America

Terminal C

AirTran Airways

JetBlue Airways

United Airlines

Terminal E

AerLingus

Air France

Alitalia

British Airways

Iberia

Icelandair

Lufthansa

Porter Airlines

SATA International

Southwest Airlines

Swiss International Air Lines

TACV

Virgin Atlantic Airways

Transit to/from airport

We are investigating the cost for setting up an hourly airport shuttle to/from Logan and the Olin campus. The student government at Olin was able to do this for $10 per passenger at a loss of only a few hundred dollars overall, running shuttles to/from campus on the hour for multiple days in a row.

For those staying with friends in the city, Logan is readily accessible via the Blue and Silver lines of the MBTA (Boston's metro rail).

Silver Line connects to the Red Line, which goes to Alewife Station (at which point a shuttle to the hotel would be arranged by organizers and the hotel; there is an existing hotel shuttle running to/from this station).

Blue line connects to the Green Line, the D line of which runs to the stop closest to Olin.

Transit to/from Boston

For FUDPub and other social events in Boston, there is a shuttle from the hotel to Alewife (a major stop on the MBTA red line). Ride time estimate is 15 minutes.

Room Capacities and Configuration

Internet Capabilities

Alternate Venues for Meeting (not in a hotel

Availability

Need to check.

Parking

Parking at Olin is ample and free.

Room Spaces and Costs

Need map, costs.

We're thinking of asking for the entire 3rd floor of the Academic Center, which gives us classrooms with projectors, whiteboards, and moveable tables and chairs. 7 classrooms, the auditorium (capacity ~300), and dining hall access should be sufficient.

The buildings are unlocked during the day, and students have 24/7 card access, so admission to the building should not be a problem.

Networking

Olin has a guest network. Need to check capacity. High-speed wifi is available throughout the entire campus and supports 300+ students and 40+ faculty who use laptops and connectivity extensively; we're fairly confident that 300 Fedora hackers can't possibly use any more of the network than 300 Olin students could.

Food and Catering

Local food (within walking distance of Olin's campus)

Masala Art (Indian, $$)

Not Your Average Joe's (contemporary American, $$)

Friendly's (American diner, $)

Stone Hearth Pizza (Upscale pizza, $)

List other places.

Shirts!

Check with Mo where FUDCon Boston shirts have formerly been printed.

Transportation to Event

Flight estimates from kayak.com. February 2011 has been checked since flights in Jan 2012 are not available yet, but cost should be comparable.

Costs from RDU (Raleigh, NC)

Friday, February 18 - Monday, February 21 = $109 as of 1/18

Costs from ORD (Chicago, IL)

Friday, February 18 - Monday, February 21 = $179 as of 1/18

Costs from LAX (Los Angeles, CA)

Friday, February 18 - Monday, February 21 = $289 as of 1/18

Costs from JFK (New York, NY)

Friday, February 18 - Monday, February 21 = $99 as of 1/18

Or take a Chinatown bus for $15-30 each way. Some buses (Bolt Bus, etc) have wifi.

Costs from LHR (London, UK)

FUDPub Options

Flat Top Johnny's, where we had the last Boston FUDPub. Easily accessable via shuttle + subway from the proposed hotel locations.

Family Fun

Thinking of bringing your family to Boston? There are tons of activities to do.

In town

Boston Children's Museum

Boston Museum of Science

MIT Museum

Duck Boats

Harvard Square

Massachusetts Avenue

Boston Commons

Shopping Get help with this section for non-geeky stuff. Lots of unique and geeky stores here, from the MIT Press Bookstore to MicroCenter and You-Do-It Electronics.

Out of Town

New Hampshire - White Mountains

Skiing (MBTA-accessible, including one right next to the Westford Red Hat office)

More notes needed to flesh in this section.

About the Organizers - Previous FUDCon Experience, etc.

Primary owner: Sebastian Dziallas (student at Olin College). Sebastian has organized open source events before (LinuxCon Education Mini-Summit). He attended FUDCon Berlin 2009, Toronto 2009, and Tempe 2011, and has spoken and represented Fedora at LinuxTag 2009 and 2010 and LinuxCon 2010, among other events.

Secondary owner: Mel Chua (alumni of Olin College, current Red Hat employee in Raleigh NC) - Mel has organized an open source event at Olin before (OLPC Game Jam, June 2007) and was one of the organizers of the Toronto FUDCon in December 2009. She also attended the Boston FUDCon in January 2009 and the Tempe FUDCon in January 2011.

Deadlines

None yet; need to investigate deadlines for hosting events at Olin.

Pros and Cons of Proposed Location

Engineers from the Westford office are close to this location, saving on travel costs. Mel Chua 18:08, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

RIT students can road-trip to the location easily. Mel Chua 18:08, 18 January 2011 (UTC)